Most of our youngsters 2012, the first round of the breeder, are born with full moon. We didn’t plan this but it just happened. We couldn’t pair them earlier because we were very busy in that period with all kinds of pigeon-happenings, as well in our own country as abroad, among which three times in China. In fact too much to be good. But what do you want…it’s not easy to respond negative when you get the proposal. Of course, I must admit that I still like to belong to the pigeon world, so I can’t complain. It is and it was our own decision to be away from home regularly, always for at least a few days. My wife got used to it to spend some times alone in our bed, she likes to get some rest now and then and it’s good for her to build up some new energy. Of course it’s not good to do this too often because as you know: “When the cat’s away, the mice dance.” And sex is just like faith, they talk a lot about it but they don’t practise enough. It’s also a fact that people lie a lot about sex, most of them even lie during sex. Women can fake an orgasm and men a whole relation… But…we weren’t talking about that, so lets just get on…
It seems that youngsters, which are born by full moon, should be more valuable than their brothers and sisters, which were born earlier or later.  They also should be more attached to the loft and much more clever, so there should be less lost. We will pay more attention to it this year, to see if it’s true. We can control it because our second round of youngsters of the breeders were born a few weeks later and they will stay on the same loft as those of the first round. After the season 2012 we can explain more about this…
The pigeon-happening in Dortmund (Germany) January 14-15th  2012, where we visited as usual and so we are able to compare. What did we notice most? Everything has become a bit smaller; the stands of the exhibitors got smaller and closer to each other which gave the impression that there still were a lot of participators. Concerning the number of visitors, certainly on Saturday, this was successful. Also in Germany our sport is still alive and well. Nevertheless, people didn’t buy a lot of heavy things any longer. The auction of pigeons on Saturday and the pigeon-forum on Sunday, draw a lot of interested people. But the party-evening on Saturday didn’t get that much attention any more and it certainly wasn’t the same as the evening of the Pigeon Olympics in 2009, also organised in Dortmund.
The happening in Kassel (Germany) is totally different, much bigger with a lot of atmosphere and much more attention to the inner side of human beings. All fanciers prefer to visit Kassel. I heard that they would like to put the two together (Dortmund and Kassel), as one well organised event. Hopefully they can manage but this want be easy to realise in short time.
Back home from Germany, my attention was drawn by the running on my racing loft. As always, I should put a feather on my wives hat, although she doesn’t wear a hat but she wears the trousers.  She had no problem by controlling this whole team. But one day later, after I was back in charge, it happened. The first battles on the eggs were a fact. Bloody noses and eyes and damaged feathers was the result. It happens again every year, although we spend a lot of time and care to this problem. Funny that the problem always solves itself. After a few days of troubles, peace and quiet returns on the loft. Of course, you have to replace the broken eggs with plastic ones and it’s also best to give a new nest-bowl too.
Again we found out that it’s best to leave out your paired racers every day and certainly the hens. They still have to get used to their new loft and the environment. Flying in and out makes it much easier. By coincidence, I read on the website of the KBDB, that we best kept our birds inside between 24/12/2011 and 15/01/2012, because in this period they can hunt down the wild pigeons. We respected this request but we noticed many pigeons still flying around the loft.  When I pointed somebody to this request, but he didn’t know anything about it. Again prove of lack of good communication between the fanciers and the KBDB. Not everybody has a computer and when they have one, they are not visiting the sites every day. May be they should look out for an easy  solution via the clubs? This should also improve the relation among each other, especially during winter when the fanciers can’t keep up with the running in the club. There are not enough activities, to get the fanciers out of their homes although there is need for it…Normally they should create need first but this asks time and work and not everybody likes to do it. Especially women know more about it. Sometimes they cry out for what they want or they are jumping to satisfy their needs. These are women that burn of love but they mostly don’t have a husband who feels or sees it…imagine this.
On many lofts, the youngsters of the first round are already weaned but not with us. Try to avoid of feeding them little corn, especially the days just after weaning. When you find Tasmania peas, you’re already one step ahead. The youngsters like to eat it very much and they only have to pick a few times to get enough. We prefer to feed these peas only (without other corn) till one week after the weaning. Afterwards, we easily change over to a light mixture: Gerry Plus of Versele-Laga.  Make sure the youngsters have enough space, not too many on the same compartment. And when they start to flutter around, time has come to leave them without any food one day a week. This will also make them listen better. Scientists, which are people we can believe, say that the orientation of youngsters develop especially in the first months after their birth. Don’t turn them into chickens but make sure to get happy and healthy pigeons, filled with energy. If you want to succeed with youngsters, you have to keep them sharp every time you feed them. When you only feed them once a day, you have to make sure they are satisfied to spend the night.

Also important: we have to get them in the air as soon as possible, even if we have to use a stick or a ball. Believe me, this has its advantages.  I share my experience with all of you now but I always wait too long to leave with my youngsters. In Taiwan, they always play for a lot of money with youngsters that are only 90 days old and then you should know that these young ones already have some races of 200 km in their wings. This is the truth and I know what I’m talking about because I lived their for 20 years. I know their system very well but we don’t succeed to do the same because we are too careful. About 70 years ago, my father send me away with a basket with only a few old birds and some young ones and I still remember that these little ones still were peeping. Well the pigeons that got home first were almost always these little peeping birds…how old do you think they were????
It4s important to observe their health…give them fresh stones every day (HERBOMIX and/or ALL IN ONE and COMBIMIX,  and minerals which make sure that their health remains well…
More news about it, next time. In the mean time, to all that read me, have fun and most of all :”SATY HEALTHY!”
And if you want your dreams to come true…don(t go to sleep…

THE LOST SON